Wendy Couture

From Courtroom to Classroom

Wendy Couture probably didn’t see it as a rebellious choice. She considered two paths when deciding how she would advance her education: law school or graduate work in economics.

Couture earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University in economics and French – and took the path to law school and earned her juris doctorate at Southern Methodist University.

“Probably because my father never wanted me to be a lawyer, I chose the lawyer path,” laughs Couture.

From law school to the courtroom, Couture says she has had some excellent experiences since her law career started.

“For a year after graduating from law school, I clerked for a federal district court judge in Texas,” said Couture. “Traditionally, first-year attorneys are in the basement reviewing documents. There I was, helping a judge on some of the most important cases of the day: securities, First Amendment, white collar crime, and civil rights.”

Following her work with the federal district court, Couture joined Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, a large Dallas, Texas-based firm. For three years, she practiced in the area of complex commercial and business litigation. Then it was time to make a move from the heat of the south to the Evergreen state, where Couture joined a boutique firm in Washington.

“I went from working on cases covered by national newspapers to representing small businesses and individuals,” she says. “ It was a great way to round out my skills as an attorney and to reinforce that even business law is ultimately about people, whether they be investors, officers, or sole proprietors.”

But her ultimate goal was to be in the classroom. “My law professors were my heroes,” she relates.

“After my first day of class, I knew that I had found my calling. I was just delighted to be teaching!”

She had a one-year appointment as a visiting associate professor of law at the University of Idaho College of Law, and then went on to join the faculty of St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas as an assistant professor of law, before returning to the University of Idaho as an associate professor of law.

She is one of the faculty members teaching in the third-year program in Boise, which graduated its first cohort of 29 students in May 2011.

“I am biased, but I think it is a resounding success!”

Couture calls the Boise-based program “unique”, with distinguishing features like small class sizes that enable in-depth discussions and lengthy question-and-answer sessions.

“Also, because of the smaller community, it is easier to establish mentoring relationships with individual students,” says Couture. “Students drop by my office now more than ever before – to ask for career advice, to comment on topics that were discussed in class, or just to say ‘hi.’”

Although based in Boise, Couture has students in both Boise and Moscow. With multiple cameras to see all angles of the class and the help of other technology, Couture says her students in the north can participate fully in the class.

“When I taught the class in-person in Moscow for the first time, I think the students were surprised by how short I am,” she says. “I had arranged the camera angle to add some height.”

Couture looks forward to the future expansion of Idaho’s law school in Boise.

“These two years have been wonderful, and I look forward to seeing how we can further enrich the law school through our presence in Boise.